Badenoch bounce ends as PM avoids farmer blowback

Labour increases lead over Tories in our weekly tracker poll

- DAVID MADDOX

Kemi Badenoch's honeymoon appears to have come to an end as the poll surge enjoyed by her party since she was elected Tory leader stalled this week.

According to the Techne UK weekly tracker poll for The Independent, Sir Keir Starmer actually saw a small increase in his lead over the Tories – now two points – despite a difficult week in which the farmers’ protests in London attracted an estimated 20,000 people.

Sir Keir was also criticised for meeting China’s president Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Rio just hours before 45 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong were jailed – but it does not appear to have harmed his standing with the public either.

In the latest poll, Labour was up one to 29 per cent; the Tories were unchanged on 27 per cent; Nigel Farage’s Reform UK were also unchanged on 17 per cent; the Lib Dems were down one to 12 per cent; and the Greens were unchanged on 7 per cent.